Last update June 23, 2023

In June of 2023 I accepted a challenging project involving the creation of a hollow, "three-intersecting-tubes" structure for an extremely demanding client.

Pre-viz of proposed structure

My first task was to procure eight empty YBC Chip Star tubes to be used as the primary building materials. Only six were actually needed to complete the project, but two spare tubes were purchased in case of "mishaps" (or hunger) during construction.

Primary construction materials   7-11 Konbini, June 2, 2023

It took over 2 weeks to acquire all the tubes, due to my wife insisting potato chips were fattening, and limiting my "chips" consumption to only three packages per week.

It was a tight production schedule, so I simultaneously began working on the technically challenging part of the project by firing-up my "go-to" software, Houdini.

First, I built a cylinder with a radius of 0.5 units and a height of 2 units.

That single cylinder was cut with 2 longer cylinders of the same width.

The resulting geometry was copied and rotated six times, creating the structure I was looking for.

But, what I needed was the shape of the section to cut from the end of each tube.

So, I extracted that, and applied cylindrical UV attributes to the points.

Then, the geometry was unrolled by transferring the UV attributes to the XY positions.

X values were multiplied by PI, and Y values by 0.5, to get the proper dimensions.

Finally, the geometry was rendered out as a jpg file using Karma XPU.

Final Image: 1340x300   Karma XPU: 0.37 seconds

The jpg file was then transferred to an iMac workstation for the next phase of the project.

The exterior diameter of each tube was around 6.7cm, making the circumference about 21.05cm.

The jpg image was copied into a new "Pages" file, scaled to 21.05cm, duplicated several times, printed on white paper, and cut into strips

A strip was attached to the top of each tube using a Yamato Arabic glue stick. Once dry, the top of each tube was carefully cut-away using a pair of craft scissors.

The cut sections of tubing were then combined and held together using 15mm x 50mm strips of clear adhesive tape.

The completed structure... ready for final review.

The client was a bit obsessive and insisted on a close inspection of every square millimeter, inside and out.

Finally they emerged, giving full approval of the completed structure.

A job well done.

Thanks, once again, to Houdini!

SOFTWARE

Houdini 19.5.640

Apple Pages Version 11.1

HARDWARE

Workstation I: Debian 11 Linux, AMD Ryzen 9 3900x, 64 GB, RTX 2070 & RTX 3070

Workstation II: iMac 21.5", Catalina 10.15.7, Intel Core i7, 16 GB, GeForce GT 750M

Canon iP 2600 Printer

The Bates Mfg. Co. Metal Ruler, Model BNR-12

Craft Scissors, 12.5cm Stainless Steel Blades

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

Six YPC Chip Star "Lightly Salted" Tubes (empty)

Yamato Arabic Glue Stick, NA-50T

Two Sheets, Multi White Paper, A4 size

Nichiban, 15mm Cello Tape